That World Inverted

Spiritual Reality

I can mention spirituality to few people; with most, their eyes begin to glaze over after the second syllable. It doesn’t surprise me. This arena has been so overrun with bad religion and narrow-minded charlatans. No wonder most people are skeptical, nay, downright infuriated by the mention of spirituality.

And yet, they inevitably begin to tell me some tale about themselves or someone close to them who has come to a realization, or who has a deep feeling, or who has suddenly turned around and changed their dismal circumstances. A story of a weird coincidence that changed their life, a difficult situation that led to a whole new world, a chance meeting, an inner urging, a fucking awesome dream! But no. No, this is not spiritual. No, of course not. It features no crystals or mad hermits. There are no amazing waves of energy and it doesn’t feel like an acid trip. There was no god or alien or elf present. It was too quiet to be spiritual. And anyway, spirituality is a bunch of hooey….right?

To some, if it’s spurchel, it’s gotta be big. It’s gotta be a lightning bolt through your TV set before you’ll pay attention and call it what it is. But see, I have this hunch that the big spiritual awakening we are currently expecting on the horizon will be a subtle experience. A quiet evolution on an individual scale. Each person will have their relatively gentle revelations and infect their friends and neighbors with their newfound realizations, their innocent little anecdotes. The effect is cumulative and building but completely without a leader. It is guided by a million little moments of unfolding. It is made of all those times something just became clear.

That’s the reality. That’s how it works in this realm. Not to say that the spiritual fantasy of alien spaceships and mayan plumed serpents serves no purpose because they do. It’s just the purpose they serve looks nothing like I thought. It’s an old man suddenly admitting that he’s wrong. It’s a young girl taking your hand and saying nothing. It’s a gentle wave of feeling when you’re sitting staring into your coffee, thinking nothing at all.